Court hears gay dads’ La. birth certificate case

The state of Louisiana is asking a federal appeals court to let it list just one of two adoptive gay parents’ names on their child’s birth certificate.

A full panel of 16 judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Wednesday in the case of parents Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith. They now live in Florida and adopted their son after he was born in Shreveport in 2005.

Adopted children in Louisiana get birth certificates bearing their new parents’ names. Louisiana contends that because state law lets only married couples or single individuals adopt, only one man’s name may go the boy’s birth certificate.

A district judge and a three-judge appeal panel have already ruled that Louisiana was wrong. It was unclear when the full appeals court’s ruling will be handed down.

-end-